Cadiz ......... ......... ......... ......... ......... ......... Kentucky

[Qapla]

I didn't want to hijack the other thread - so, thought I'd finish my story over here

 

Back in the late 1970's another single Brother and I (also single) decided to attend the District Convention in Des Moines, Iowa. The Congregation I was in had a new family move in from Ames, Iowa and they had several people come visit, so I had met several publishers from Ames Iowa and we were offered a nice place to stay, although they seemed to find it a bit odd that someone would voluntarily come to Iowa for a "vacation". It seems people who live in Iowa enjoy visiting Florida in the winter - for some reason - but had never thought people from FLorida would enjoy Iowa.

 

A Family with one small child opened their house to us and told us to make it our own. In fact, even though this particular family had never met us, when we arrived at their house they handed us a key, showed us our rooms and told us we were free to come and go as we pleased (they knew we planned to spend some time with some of the younger, single people I had met). They made us feel like family!

 

To make this trip, we drove - a distance of nearly 1300 miles each way. We were in a pickup truck that had an oversized camper shell on the bed. The camper did have a bed that went from one side to the other and a carpeted floor - but that was about all. The rear differential made a "roaring" noise all the time. It got louder the faster you went - and we drove Interstate speed most of the way. Due to the overly wide camper and the truck suspension the truck rocked from side-to-side on curvy roads. That made sleeping in the bed quite an adventure.

 

Our route took us through Nashville, Tenn. where we met a nice JW family by looking up the KH in the phonebook. We had a nice meal with them and they let us use their shower  

 

It was late when we left. We took I-24 out of Nashville headed toward Illinois. The other Brother was driving. There was hardly any traffic in the road, after all, at that time, I-24 was a brand new road. We passed interchange after interchanged where everything was closed. This truck used gas at a veracious rate. We were starting to get quite concerned since every gas station we passed was close. The gauge was hovering near the "E" when we saw a sign that said "All Traffic Must Exit - Road Closed Ahead". So, we got off. There was a small, country gas station to the right that looked closed, although it had a few rather unsavory guys in the parking lot drinking beer. We turned left.

 

We were a bit worried as we drove down a dark, two-laned road - then, as we rounded a curve we saw a rather large, brightly lit gas station. We pulled in and filled up. When I asked the young guy in the store where we were he told us "Cadiz" (Kentucky).

 

We asked him which way we should go to get back to the Interstate to keep going. He pointed us in the direction we were pointed and told us "Just go straight down this road a piece and it will take you right to Paducah".

 

I took over driving and the other Brother got in the back to sleep. It was dark as could be, we even had a "new moon" and there didn't look to be any stars. If it weren't for the line painted on the road, I would have really had a hard time driving that road at night. Let's just say that, if this road was "straight" and we only needed to go "a piece" I'm sure glad that station guy didn't send me down a long, curvy road!

 

When I finally got to Paducah and stopped at another gas station the Brother climbed out of the back and asked me what I had been doing - he said the only way he could stay put on the bed was to lay face down, "spread-eagle" due to all the rocking and swaying.

 

On our way back we drove down that same road in the daytime ... I was a beautiful area with some magnificent views of the mountain terrain - but, we saw why the road made us rock and sway so much. It definitely was Not "straight" and it was a lot longer than what we would call "a piece".

[➕👇 ꓤꓱꓷꓠꓵ🎵Tone]

Nice read. Thanks for sharing. Being a youngster in the truth, is like having relatives all over the world (like a spiritual brotherhood would!)
It brings back good memories of visiting my brother who was Specialling in Papua New Guinea.
At the District Convention meeting spiritually mature ones who went to where there was a need was great. Then to be invited to stay with them was a treat.

Older {waiting for wiser}

[hatcheckgirl]

That was lovely to read and travel with you in my imagination, John.  Our lives are so enriched in the truth, and our family is there at every step to help us.  Nice memories of friends I met for the first time, helping us out on long-distance country rides.  We really are a brotherhood.